One Long Business Trip
by russettfox
Summary: You know something is wrong in the realm of time and space when Seto Kaiba, CEO of Kaiba Corp., gets transported to a world whose existence he'd rather not acknowledge.  Rated T to be safe.


**Hi! This is my first time writing fanfiction of any kind (actually, this is my first time writing anything besides school essays). Please let me know how I'm doing with regards to characterization, plot, dialogue, pacing etc. I really want to know what you guys think! :)**

**IMPORTANT STORY NOTE: For this story, I will using the Pokemon MANGA, not the anime (a bit of the game influence, though). For those unfamiliar with the manga, just know that Gold, Crystal, Green, Yellow, and Silver are not OCs. If you know who I'm talking about, and they seem OOC, though, please let me know. I tried to keep everyone in character, but if you think ANY of the characters seem off, I'll try and fix it for future chapters.**

**Yugioh time line: Err...sometime after Battle City.**

**Pokemon time line: I haven't entirely decided yet. I'm sure the Sinnoh Pokedex holders will have finished their arc, but I haven't decided about Black and White, yet.**

**"Words" – speech**

**_Words_ - thoughts, and ****emphasis**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters! They belong to their respective owners!**

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><p>"You're fired." Seto Kaiba deadpanned when a young woman, his latest secretary, entered his office.<p>

"Wh..what? Why?" the woman asked in shock. "I've worked all day, every day! I haven't even taken a coffee break since I started this job!"

Kaiba barely spared her a glance. "You screwed up my calendar." Without missing a beat, he went back to his laptop and renewed his work.

The woman paled. Kaiba might have smirked at her reaction, if he weren't so angry. As it was, he kept on clicking away on his laptop, ignoring the woman on the other side of his desk, who seemed about ready to have a mental breakdown.

"Wa..wait a minute! I can fix it, I know I can fix it! Please! I promise it won't happen ever again! Please! " the woman said, clearly on the verge of tears.

Kaiba stopped typing again, and turned his head to look at her. Normally, he wouldn't be this harsh with his newer employees, particularly his secretaries. Had it been some other mistake, he would have simply scared her a bit, and then let her stay. Then, she would be very unlikely to make the same mistake (or any other mistake) ever again. But it _was_ his calendar, it was practically sacred. Without it, he would never be able to keep all of his many appointments, business trips, and project deadlines in order. Kaiba Corp. would probably fall to pieces, so he had to ensure that the calendar would be in safe, competent hands.

Besides, her little screw up had almost made him forget about his latest business venture to New York, to discuss expanding his company's influence in America. Luckily, he had caught the mistake before it was too late. He didn't want to sour his relations with those he would be meeting with later, after all. The only thing Kaiba really regretted about this whole affair was that he was going to have to hire a new secretary, again.

_It's a pity, they usually last a bit longer._

"No. This is one thing I can't forgive. Collect your things, and get out of my office."

With tears in her eyes, the woman quickly turned away and practically ran out of the room. Kaiba stared after her as she closed the door. He hoped she wouldn't make a mess of the files and folders on her desk. If the front desk was disorganized, it could make a bad impression on the soon-to-be prospective secretaries.

Once again, he turned back to his laptop. He checked the time at the bottom right-hand of the screen.

_10:36. I don't have much time left to finish this program before I have to leave for my flight. Of course, if that woman hadn't fucked up my schedule, I wouldn't be under this time constraint._

Thinking about it only served to fuel his anger, so he forced himself to take a breath and calm down a bit. At least he didn't have to worry about being at the airport by a certain time (he did own several private jets, after all). As long as he left within about 5 hours, he would have plenty of time to prep for and get to his New York meeting. With that thought in mind, he settled down for a long night of black coffee and programming.

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><p>It was 2:30 in the morning by the time Kaiba got back home. He didn't bother flicking on the lights as he came in. He got home late often enough, so he was used to maneuvering about his mansion in the dark. It would just be a quick stop anyway. Get in, check on Mokuba, pick up luggage, and get out. Fast and simple.<p>

He padded up the stairs quietly to the door of Mokuba's room. Cracking open the door, he saw just enough of the interior to confirm Mokuba was asleep. Kaiba was a bit worried about leaving Mokuba behind this time. His little brother didn't exactly have the best track record when it came to being kidnapped. But he would have Roland and other bodyguards there to protect him. And, as much as he hated to admit it, Mokuba had Yugi and his gang there to help him out, too, if he got into any trouble. Satisfied that his brother would be in good hands, he closed the door, hearing the lock catch with a soft click before he set out for his own bedroom.

Kaiba didn't trouble himself with being quiet as he entered his own room. Swiftly and efficiently, he removed a suitcase from his closet, and began packing everything he would need for the upcoming trip. After about 10 minutes, he was done. He took one last glance around the room to check for anything he might have missed (_unlikely_), when his gaze fell upon his bed and he realized something: he was tired.

It had been a hectic week, and Kaiba hadn't gotten the chance to really sleep for more than 3 hours at a time in a while. A quick glance at his watch told him it was only 2:46. Running through the calculations in his head, he concluded that, as long as he left within 20 minutes, he would have ample time for one of his jets to make the flight across the Pacific. He took out his phone and set his alarm to go off in 15 minutes.

_Closing my eyes for just 15 minutes won't hurt._

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><p>Crystal was having a bad day.<p>

It had started out normally enough.

-Flashback-

Crystal woke up with like any other morning, stretching as she wiped the sleep out of her eyes. She slipped off her bed and made her way to the bathroom to start her day. After a quick shower, she went downstairs to make a simple breakfast for her and her Pokémon. Then, she put on her jacket, grabbed her house keys, and left for work at Professor Oak's lab. The walk there had been uneventful, as usual, but as she entered the lab, an aide informed her Professor Oak had been called away by Professor Birch on an impromptu trip to Hoenn – some sort of emergency.

_That's worrying. But it can't be too bad. _She had reassured herself. _The professor would have called me or one of the other Pokedex holders if it was._

As Professor Oak was gone, that meant that Crystal's workload had more than doubled. With a sigh, he had resigned herself to several long hours of paper pushing and data crunching. And as though the paper work itself wasn't bad enough, Gold had seemingly decided it was his new mission in life to annoy her out of her wits. He just waltzed in the front door, as cocksure as ever, and started demanding a battle.

"Can't you see I'm busy? Professor Oak is gone, and that means the other lab aides and I have more work to do," she said, exasperated. "Why don't you try asking Silver or Green, or, heck, even Yellow?"

"Don't ya think I've thought of that already? I tried, Crys! But Green's busy with the gym, Yellow doesn' really like to battle, and Silver's upped and vanished again! Please, Crys! Just take a small break for one tiny little battle? It can even be 3-on-3!" Gold he exclaimed, as if that solved everything.

Crystal sighed once more. No battle could ever be considered anything remotely "little" where Gold was involved. Though it was a little odd that Silver was gone. True, he often left on his own, before, but nowadays he told them ahead of time when he would be leaving. Had something happened? She pushed the thought out of her mind as she focused on the problem at hand: Gold.

"No. And that's final. Now go away and let me work in peace!"

"Awww…c'mon, Crys…2-on-2?" he asked, pleading now.

"No," she said again, firmly, getting more irritated by the second.

Gold slouched over and started to turn away. Crystal let herself focus on the papers in front of her again, trying to finish at least this set before her lunch break. She let herself start to relax a bit more as the footsteps faded away, until…

"…1-on-1." Gold asked, no _stated,_ in a surprisingly normal tone of voice.

"NO, Gold! I have work to do!"

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon! Crys, it's not like one battle's gonna screw over your whole day, and I'm soooo super bored! I'm not leavin' till you say 'yes'!" He said with his signature grin while taking out his cue and planting it on the tiled floor of the lab, as if it were a flag.

Crystal refused the urge to beat her head against the wall, repeatedly. Sometimes, she wanted to kick that boy. Hard. Where it hurts. As it was, she knew she could never get rid of him until she did want he wanted.

"Fine. 1-on-1. But not far from the lab, I need to get back as soon as possible."

"YEEEESSSSS! Score one for Gold, Master of Persuasion! Haha!" he shouted, lunging forward to grab Crystal by the arm and drag her out of the lab.

"Hey! Watch it Gold! That's hurts, you know!" she complained, struggling to free herself form his grip.

"Wha? Oh, yeah, sorry. Now c'mon, let's get this party started! Explotaro, go, let's take her down!" he yelled, sending out his typhlosion.

Crystal sighed again, to show Gold how childish she thought he was being. But inwardly, she was kind of happy for the break. And besides what kind of trainer would she be if she didn't enjoy the occasional Pokémon battle every now and then?

"Bonee! Let's make this a quick victory!" She shouted, throwing out her cubone.

"Yeah right! Show 'em your flamethrower, Explotaro!" Explotaro let out a stream of white hot flames straight for Bonee.

"Dodge, Bonee! Counter with bone rush!" The small brown pokémon barely dodged, singing its foot a bit, and began to run at the larger pokémon.

"Don't let that cubone hit you! Use flame wheel to scare it off!" Gold commanded as his typhlosion began to create a circle of fire around itself. The cubone hesitated, not wanting to get burned with its relatively low special defense.

"Don't be intimidated, Bonee! Try your Bonemerang, instead." Crystal encouraged her cubone from the sidelines. Bonee seemed to like this idea a lot better, and with a determined gleam in its eyes, threw its bone it Explotaro's direction. Unexpectedly, Gold grinned.

"Just what I was waiting for! Now Explotaro! Get in close and use Hyper Beam while it doesn't have that club!" He yelled, oozing with confidence. The typhlosion seemed sure of itself as well, and began to charge an energy beam.

Crystal was startled. Since when had his typhlosion learned Hyper Beam? She was just about to order another defensive maneuver, but then something clicked, and she remembered their current location.

"Wait, Gold! Explotaro is aiming right at the-!" But it was too late. Explotaro had already sent out a beam of light, hitting Bonee dead center, knocking it out. Unfortunately, it didn't stop there. The rest of the beam went straight for the lab, blowing up a sizable hole in the wall.

"Aw, yeah! Great job, Explotaro! Whose 'quick victory' is it now, eh, Crys? " Gold started to brag, but then saw Crystal standing, very stiffly, facing towards the lab.

"Crys? Ya don't need to be that upset." He said, closing his eyes and bring his cue up to rest on his shoulder. "I mean, it was pretty obvious that you would lose to the awesome me in the end, and-"

"_Gold_…" Crystal said, voice trembling with anger just waiting to be let loose upon the world.

Suddenly, Gold got the feeling that he should open his eyes. When he did, he noticed the smoking ruins of what used to be the lab's wall.

"Ohhhh…uhhh...whoops?" Gold said with a voice full of uncertainty, and not a little fear. Explotaro looked back at his oblivious trainer and sweat dropped.

"Look! I'll, uh...buy you a new wall! How's that?"

"Oh, you'll need to buy more than just a new wall, Gold. I do believe that there's, at least, 1 million pokedollars worth of equipment destroyed. Of course, I haven't had time to do a complete survey of the damages, but I'd say that's a safe guess." Crystal said in an entirely too happy voice for the occasion. She turned back at him with one of those creepy smiles someone gives you when they would like nothing more than to kill you, right then and there. Gold knew he was screwed. So he did the only thing he could think of – run.

"Okay, yeah. When you get the price tag, be sure and mail it to me!" he shouted back to her, already half-way out of Pallet Town with his typhlosion close behind.

Crystal groaned aloud. Professor Oak was not going to be happy with her. But there was really nothing she could do at this point. All of her work was probably ruined, and she could only hope the professor had copies of the most important data somewhere. Of course, that meant she would be have enough work that, piled up, would make a wailord sink when Professor Oak finally came back. She could only be glad it was the research area that was harmed, and not the building that stored all the pokémon.

With yet another sigh, Crystal decided to take a walk while the last remaining flames burned themselves out. There was nothing she could do anyway.

-End flashback-

Crystal had been aimlessly wandering along Route 1 for a while now.

_The fire must have burned itself out by now._

Crystal was just about ready to turn back and head towards the lab, when she caught sight of a man lying in the middle of the path. Gasping in surprise and worry, she ran over to his side and checked his pulse.

_Still strong. Thank goodness. But what is he doing out here, then? Was he knocked out by some wild pokémon? But that can't be right, all of the pokémon around here are pretty weak, and wouldn't attack people anyway. And none of them know how to use a move that induces sleep either. I guess the only way to find out what happened is to wake him up._

Plan in mind, she began to shake the man's (_No, boy's .He's around my age, and just looks older because he's really tall)_ shoulder.

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><p>"Hey, hey, are you alright?" a disembodied voice, though definitely female, called.<p>

Kaiba's eyelids twitched, and he grunted in annoyance. He knew he hadn't been lying down for _that_ long.

_This girl had better leave me alone, before I….wait, what? Why is there a girl in my room?_

With that thought, his eyes snapped open and he lashed out at the direction the voice had been coming from. He felt one fist connect with what must have been her chin.

"OW!" the girl yelped. Kaiba sat up in a flash, and got his first look at his awakener. She couldn't have been more than 16 or 17. She was wearing a white jacket on top of a red shirt, with black and yellow shorts. She had a yellow bag, and smelled a bit like smoke. But what really caught his attention was her hair. For starters, it was _blue_. And somehow, she had managed to style it in these weird, gravity defying pigtails. In Kaiba's opinion, it was second in weirdness only to Yugi's hair, which was saying a lot.

After he had profiled the girl, he noticed something that, perhaps, he should have noticed sooner. He wasn't in his room any more. In fact, it looked like he wasn't anywhere near Domino, let alone his mansion. He gave his new surroundings a glance, taking note of the position of the sun as well (_it's fairly high, it must be around noon or one_) then snapped his attention back to the girl (_kidnapper?_) as she opened her mouth…

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><p>"What was that for?" Crystal shouted, shock and anger coloring her voice.<p>

_Who punches a girl they don't even know first thing when they wake up! I'm really tempted to kick him, too!_

She brought up her hand to her chin, and felt for blood, or even a fracture. When she felt that her chin was in one piece, she brought her attention to the boy again. He was regarding her with analytic eyes, as if searching for something. Then he just kind of stared at her, right in the eyes, as if waiting for something. Just as she was about ready to 'ask' him what his problem was, he spoke.

"Where am I?" the boy asked, no _demanded_, her.

_Whoever he is, he must be used to being in control. _She didn't like his attitude, but answered anyway.

"You're on Route 1. Were you on your way to Pallet Town or something?" She asked, trying to be polite, even though he had nearly broken her jaw.

The boy didn't respond. He was just staring at her again, like he was looking for something. She hoped this wouldn't become some sort of habit; she was tired of it already.

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><p>Kaiba's mind was racing, even though one couldn't tell if they were looking at him. He tried to look for signs that she was lying, but, other than being uncomfortable, found none. Besides, people were usually uneasy around him, so he was used to it. But he ruled out her being a kidnapper. If she was, she would be more confident and demanding, and he would probably be restrained in some way. As it was, she was just sitting there, becoming more nervous by the second.<p>

But Route 1? That road was nowhere near Domino. Not to mention, it's paved with asphalt necessary for cars. It isn't some sort of footpath like he was obviously sitting on right now. Were there some woods near Route 1? If so, she probably meant that they were _near _Route 1, not on it. Pallet Town might be the name of some local store, for all he knew. It was probably not important. Satisfied that he had figured out the meaning of her somewhat bizarre statement, he stood up and dusted himself off with one hand. He didn't extend his hand to help the other girl up, and caught the girl's brief flash of irritation. Inwardly, he smirked. He had regained some semblance of control over the situation. He figured he should probably give a response, though, before she ran away on him. He couldn't have someone blabbing about having seen _the_ Seto Kaiba passed out in the woods, and he couldn't bribe her if she wasn't here. Besides, she should be able to at least lead him to some sign of civilization.

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><p><em>The nerve of this boy!<em>

She gave him an angry glare, but she got the feeling that he was more amused than intimidated. She picked herself up with a huff just as the boy began to speak again.

"Where's the nearest town, girl? Or the direction to Route 1?" he asked in that damned monotone voice.

_Was he not listening to me before? Or is he just another idiot? _

"Well," she said, making no real effort to hide her anger this time, "if you really want to find Route 1, then I suppose you could just _look all around you, _ because you're standing _right on it!_"

She caught a flicker of confusion in his eyes, and couldn't resist feeling like she had won a victory. But then something else flashed across his eyes. Not pity, but more, disgust or disapproval? Oh, she really wanted to kick him, now!

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><p>On Route 1? That wasn't possible. Was the girl really convinced of that?<p>

_Great, I'm lost in the woods with a total idiot. And I'm definitely late for that meeting. Just great. _

He decided to ignore the annoying girl for the moment and flick out his phone. His GPS function should be able to tell him his current location. He peered at the phone's screen while he waited for the GPS function to finish pinpointing his location.

"Hey! Are you _ignoring_ me? Hey!" the girl was shouting indignantly. But Kaiba paid her no mind, and focused on his phone. Something was wrong; it was taking much longer than it should have. He glanced at the upper left-hand corner, and frowned.

_No signal. That's odd. This is a clear, open area. There shouldn't be any obstacles for any phone, _especially _my custom made one. Something, or rather someone, must be blocking my signal. That's the only explanation. I have to find out who, and why. But first, I have to get in contact with Roland or another member of my security team, and have them pick me up. As long as I find a store or town, or even a house, I'll have an address they can find._

He turned his attention back towards the fuming girl.

"Do you know where the nearest house or town is? Or store?" he asked. He hoped that she wouldn't end up leading him farther into the woods, and getting them both hopelessly lost. But maybe that's what his unseen enemy wanted? He'd need to keep his guard up at all times until he took out his latest enemy.

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><p>The boy had turned his attention back to her again, but Crystal couldn't decide if that was a good or bad thing. She had half a mind to ignore this stuck-up boy and his arrogant attitude and walk away. Maybe that would teach him some manners! But, inwardly, she knew she could never abandon someone in trouble, and this boy must be hopelessly lost if he couldn't find his way around Route 1, one of the shortest, easiest routes in the world! She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.<p>

_Easy there, Crystal, calm down. You can do this, just be nice. Maybe he's just an arrogant prick because he's embarrassed or something, sort of like Silver or Green. Not many people are stupid enough to get lost on Route 1! Wait, calm down, breathe, I'm getting angry again. Breathe in, out, in, out. He's just embarrassed, that's all. In, out…_

When she had finally gotten her anger under control, she said in a more cheery voice, "Sure! The nearest town is Pallet. I live there now myself. I can take you there, if you like."

_Yes! That's it! Just be nice, and soon he'll be out of my hair!_

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><p>Kaiba didn't like her sudden change in demeanor. Angry people were easier to manipulate, after all, and more amusing in general. He wasn't a big fan of overly happy, cheerful people. And he was beginning to get the feeling that this girl was exactly that type of person. But nevertheless, he needed to get to civilization, and she was his only real chance. He could only hope that, wherever Pallet was, it wasn't that far away.<p>

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><p>"Fine." The boy replied. "Lead the way."<p>

Crystal nodded, and started to head back to Pallet Town. She got the sense that there wasn't going to be much conversation on this walk. But there was one thing that she wanted to know…

"…So, how did you end up passed put in the middle of Route 1, anyway?" she asked, genuinely curious, and a little bit worried.

The boy turned to look at her, gave her a _look,_ and then turned away again, without saying a word.

_Maybe it really was something embarrassing, that he really doesn't want to talk about…_

Then an idea hit her about a possible reason for his sleeping on the road, that could make this long walk even more of a pain.

_Arceus, I hope he's not narcoleptic!_

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><p><strong>Please review!<strong>


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